According to online marketing gurus eConsultancy, there’s a big yawning gap between a coordinated marketing efforts and results. A report recently issued by the Australian Cross Channel Marketing Report showed of 200 businesses surveyed, 57% felt that ad agencies lacked a clear online marketing strategy. According to them, this was the main reason that their campaign wasn’t working. Other reasons CEO’s pointed out were: a low budget (42%) and poor technology capabilities (38%).

It’s crucial to create an air tight internet marketing campaign that will take your business to the next level. A ripper marketing strategy should contain all of the following elements.

The Right Mindset: Your business vision, brand values and the marketing plan should all be working in alignment. In future posts, we will be exploring how to align your marketing plan with your brand in a more in-depth way.

The Right Tools: Address all of the key technical aspects of your internet marketing strategy. It should fit together, like tiles in a giant mosaic mural. Elements such as domain registration and hosting, email marketing, copywriting, graphic and web design, paid search marketing like PPC should be seamlessly integrated. The whole is greater than a sum of its parts in this case.

A Compelling Value Proposition: Work out how your offering is going to be valuable for your clients, as opposed to what’s currently out there. This is where market research is crucial for assessing what competitors are offering. Without a level of differentiation, the plan won’t work.

Cross-Reference, Measure, Adapt: Equally crucial is the measurement of your online marketing strategy and subsequent adjustments that you make to the plan, this will help it to thrive in the long term.

Did you know that by 2017, Ecommerce will account for 10% of all Australian sales both online and offline? That explains why traditional bricks and mortar shops like Myer and David Jones are gathering a mighty presence online. Aussies are increasingly spending more via internet marketing channels. By the end of 2013, it’s estimated that the Aussie average shopper will spend $1,750 online per year. It’s never been a better time to get an e-commerce website.

Work Around: Firstly, assess whether or not your business is viable for an e-commerce or online shop roll out. Some particular businesses need an offline approach.

Trend 3: Monetising Mobile

According to a recent report from Econsultancy, 72% of businesses reported a 10% increase in mobile traffic (an increase of 52% on 2012). These are promising figures for businesses looking to expand into the mobile website arena. This is where the vast majority of retailers aren’t yet fully realising sales. The moral of the story is, it’s the perfect time to build a mobile app or e-commerce site that’s mobile friendly. Doing this would be taking a giant leap ahead of the competition in 2014.

Work Around: Get an engaging and powerful mobile app, that will facilitate e-commerce on mobile devices.

Trend 4: The Loss of Faith in Ad Agencies

When a bunch of CEOs of global companies were asked about how their ad agencies were faring, 76% weren’t too complimentary. They felt that ad agencies were too opportunistic and didn’t focus on real quantifiable results. 70% of CEOs surveyed, said that big agencies tended to focus more on technicalities like not getting paid on time, to justify not delivering good results.

Work Around: Consider enlisting the help of freelancers or a smaller marketing agency with low overheads due working from a virtual office location. They can pass the savings on to you.